Va. executes killer of police officer

JARATT, Va., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Virginia has executed Edward Nathaniel Bell for the slaying of Winchester police Sgt. Ricky L. Timbrook, a crime Bell said he did not commit.

Bell was executed by injection Thursday night for the Oct. 29, 1999, killing of Timbrook, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch reported. Timbrook, 32, was shot in the head at close range as he pursued Bell in a foot chase, the newspaper said.

Bell was on probation at the time, and he and Timbrook had had previous run-ins.

"To the Timbrook family, you definitely have the wrong person," Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor quoted Bell as saying. "The truth will come out one day. This here, killing me, there's no justice about it."

Bell, 43, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. Wednesday, Traylor said. He became the 103rd person executed in Virginia since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976.

His execution followed a decision by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine not to grant celemency.

"Bell's trial, verdict and sentence have been reviewed by state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of Virginia, United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court," Kaine said in a statement.

Kaine -- who says he personally opposes capital punishment -- said he found "no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury, and then imposed and affirmed by the courts."